Activating Intent - Express-Scripts.com

Research & Consumerology

Activating Intent

Don't Let Behavior Fool You

Sub-optimal patient behaviors can be misleading, because they don't necessarily represent patients' underlying intentions. Our research and experience show that most patients, when asked, make decisions that lower costs and improve health outcomes.

In fact, a 2011 Harris Interactive study commissioned by Express Scripts confirmed that many consumers who are currently engaged in wasteful pharmacy behaviors would really rather be doing the right things: using lower-cost drugs, lower-cost channels and taking medications as the doctor prescribed. The vast majority of patients want to achieve better health outcomes and lower costs:

These findings reframe conventional thinking. The fundamental gap is not between what plan sponsors want and what consumers want. It's between what consumers want (their intent) and what they actually do (their behavior). We call this the intent-behavior gap.

What People Are Saying about Activating Patients' Good Intentions

"Activating consumer intent is a win-win for employers and employees. Engaging tools that help people make decisions will lead to more cost-effective quality outcomes, which are essential to health system reform."

— James Klein, President, American Benefits Council 1

Closing the Gap

Programs that close the intent-behavior gap could eliminate 33% of the annual $403 billion in waste in pharmacy behaviors. Closing the intent-behavior gap would save $434 per year for every man, woman and child in America.

So it's not about changing behavior; it's about activating intent. We now are focused on activating the existing good intentions of patients. This requires dramatically different tactics and strategies than the industry has deployed in the past.

The best approach:

  • Makes the right choice the easy choice for patients
  • Anticipates which patients need which interventions
  • Helps patients get from doctor's orders to optimal outcomes in the most efficient and effective way possible

Express Scripts now offers proven solutions that close the intent-behavior gap by activating consumers' good intentions.

1 Medical News Today, Sy Craft, "Docs Can Save Nation Billions By Listening to Pharmacy Habits"